One of those days.  Sigh.  Sigh again.  Everyone knows that Maui is like three time zones after the West Coast which in turn is three time zones behind the East Coast.  Kongo spends so much time on the East Coast that he pretty much just keeps EST wherever he is and that includes Maui so this morning at 3 AM local he was up taking pictures of the nearly full moon and then strolled around the property getting pre-dawn and sunrise photos before doing a few conference calls and heading out to the lava fields at La Perouse Bay.  He never made it there because three miles short of the lava good friend Brent called and said our house it San Diego had been robbed!

Gentle readers will recall that Kongo needed his house tented for termites.  Well, this morning when they went to start airing the place out they discovered that someone had snuck into the backyard, cut through the tent and raised a 50 pound kitchen window (that was locked from the inside), entered the house filled with lethal gas, and made off with Mrs. Kongo’s jewelry chest.  That’s all we know now because you can’t go into the house because its still filled with LETHAL GAS!

When we departed, we left the keys with the bug terminators, made sure everything (including kitchen windows) were all locked and happily flew off to Maui.  The exterminators are responsible for surveying the house after you leave to make sure everything is ready for the gas and this includes opening drawers so gas can get in and out.  Hmmm.  No damage to the house was found and apparently nothing else was taken.  I don’t think you even need to be a Forensic Files junkie to see where this sad trail is leading except there’s more to this story.

San Diego’s finest (To Protect and To Serve) can’t come out and check anything and look for clues or dust for fingerprints because there’s LETHAL GAS inside and besides that they can’t take a police report unless we are there in person so the clues are getting old quickly.  Just like on 48-Hours.  I did manage to persuade them to do some extra patrols and keep an eye on things tonight.  But the police are not out grilling pawn shop owners for their early morning intake and they’re not looking for guys wearing gas masks who knew exactly how to get in and out of a house filled with LETHAL gas and knew what was in the drawers in the bedroom.  Kongo can visualize the interrogation room now, bright lights on a quivering gang-banger with tattoos up his face who finally blurts out, “Okay coppers, you got me!”

So the original plan was to fly back on Monday to LAX where Kongo would then swap out suitcases and get on a plane to Florida for two weeks.  When he suggested to Mrs. Kongo that they should just call a security guard to sit on the house until she got home (by herself) she broke down in tears on the road to the lava fields and that was then end of that trip.  Calls to Delta, the hotel, and everybody in between have now got the monkeys on a redeye home this evening and we’ll be back in San Diego in time to have an early morning, face-to-face friendly chat with the exterminators and the police tomorrow as they open up the house after venting the LETHAL GAS overnight.  Whew.

Then there’s the scheduling of a locksmith to replace all the locks and get a security system installed (Kongo had been putting that off since the live in such a safe neighborhood–Hah) before he gets on the plane to Florida.  And then there’s the insurance and making lists of what isn’t there anymore and, well you can imagine all the other s**t you have to go through after something like this happens to you.

So now Kongo is going to head down to the bar and find some nice looking unsuspecting couple who are having a wonderful time in Maui and give them his Luau tickets for Saturday night (at the best place in Maui by the way…these don’t come cheap) and head to the airport.  (Kongo realizes this was a cheesy tourist thing to do but he was hoping for some fire dancer pictures)

So the quick little getaway is a lot quicker than originally planned.  Mrs. Kongo thinks her bags were packed longer than she actually had them in Maui but she’s not crying anymore and that’s a good things.

Anyway, before the world went south about just before noon (Hawaii time) it was a beautiful day and Kongo did like the sunrise.

Stay tuned for future blogs on home safety and keeping your property secured.

Travel safe.  Have fun.

So with all these clues the monkey has provided, who do YOU think did it?  (Hint, Kongo doesn’t have a butler.)